The Internet is increasingly being used to transmit audio, video or audio/visual data. One common example is the incorporation of a music video in a World-Wide Web page as a video clip. A video clip is a sequence of images intended to be displayed in rapid succession to show an animation or moving picture sequence, and may incorporate an audio channel, for the integration of both graphic and audio information. Files containing audio/visual content are usually stored on a network server and made available to network clients upon request. To view such a video clip over the Internet, a user typically boots a web browser and enters the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for the server which is providing the video file. The user then downloads the file using a network protocol, such as the file transfer protocol (FTP) and then plays the video on the client computer using the appropriate application program.
Although much of the audio/visual data available on the Internet is stored on network servers in the form of files which may be downloaded by a user and played at any time, certain events or programs may only be available at a particular time from a particular server. One such event is an Internet `webcast`, which is an event recorded or videotaped at one location, and then transmitted over the Internet as a live broadcast to be displayed on a web page. Another example is the transmission of radio or television broadcasts over the Internet. Such events are often not stored on a server as perpetual files, but instead are simply transmitted over the network as they occur. Thus, a user has only a limited opportunity to view or listen to these events.
Present Internet access devices and web browser programs do not provide a means for automatically recording a simulcast or one-time program or event. In order to access such events, it is necessary for the user to log-in to the source web site and view or listen to the event at the specified time. There are times, of course, when it may be inconvenient or impossible for the user to manually access the event, in which case the user loses the opportunity to view or listen to the event.
It is thus desirable to provide a system for recording an event which is available over a network for only a limited time, thus allowing a replay of the event at a later time. It is further desirable to provide a mechanism for programming the automatic recording of the event, thus eliminating the need for a user to manually access the event and initiate the recording process.